


Soaking Up His Light

by frozenCinders



Category: Kamen Rider Fourze
Genre: M/M, please ryuusei is trying so hard
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-03-03
Updated: 2021-03-03
Packaged: 2021-03-15 17:36:25
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,809
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/29811999
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/frozenCinders/pseuds/frozenCinders
Summary: It started with Ryuusei leaving chocolates on Gentaro's desk. He did it casually, right in front of him and the entire rest of the class, figuring the small gesture would be a good way to make his feelings known. Gentaro somehow misread the situation entirely.
Relationships: Kisaragi Gentarou/Sakuta Ryuusei
Kudos: 7





	Soaking Up His Light

**Author's Note:**

> yes i know ryuusei transferred back to his old school at the end of fourze yes i'm retconning it to make writing this easier we exist

It really seemed like it went well. Gentaro didn't say a word to him, just gave him a broad, warm smile and a knowing nod. It left Ryuusei feeling fond and fuzzy all day.

The next day, he walks into class to see Gentaro standing cross armed in front of Ryuusei's desk.

"Ryuusei! Giving me a gift like that... I can see you're trying to amplify our friendship! I accept your feelings, and here's my response!"

He steps aside all excited and reveals that Ryuusei's desk has been absolutely covered in chocolates. A fake, confused smile takes over his face by instinct.

"... Huh?" he croaks. Several chocolates start to slide off the top of the pile and Ryuusei quickly grabs them before they hit the ground.

"Chocolate is a treat that melts in your mouth... it's the campfire of the heart! You're finally letting me warm up your heart that you kept so cold!"

It shouldn't be possible, but is Gentaro somehow seeing Ryuusei's actions through his famed and powerful friendship lens?

"No, no, I..." he stammers, quickly giving up with a restrained sigh. "It looks like I'll have to try harder."

Gentaro, still beaming, crosses his arms and nods.

"I'll accept anything you give me! And I'll dish it right back out, ten times stronger!"

Several chocolates hit the ground as an anticlimactic emphasis.

A different approach would be wise. When Ryuusei goes back to the drawing board, he figures an old fashioned love letter would probably be effective, if a bit cliche. The only problem is that Ryuusei can't get his brain to work, sitting there pencil in hand for five whole minutes without writing a single word before his temper sneaks up on him and snaps the pencil in his hand.

Something else, then. Flowers, maybe... Gentaro would certainly be too dense to recognize any sort of flower language-- not to say that Ryuusei knows anything about it himself-- so he can just pick out flowers by appearance, collecting anything that reminds him of Gentaro.

Unfortunately, no flowers manage to remind him of Gentaro. Maybe it's weird to try to use a method traditionally used for winning over women on a man anyway.

Or maybe plants aren't a complete miss... Looking at bonsais now, Ryuusei sees a sample of brilliant blue foliage. A plant that Ryuusei grew from seeds and took care of until it flourished would surely make a more meaningful gift. He quickly searches the name of the plant, wondering how long he'd have to wait to gift it to Gentaro.

Six to twelve weeks is what he gleans with a short glance. He shrugs and buys the seeds and a few different sized pots, figuring he'll just hope it'll only take six weeks to grow.

Bored as he waits for a crosswalk, Ryuusei wakes his phone up and decides to do a little more reading on the plant.

"Eh..?"

The coleus does not take six to twelve weeks to mature. It takes six to twelve _months_.

Lips tight, Ryuusei struggles to ease his grip on his phone, lest it somehow manage to snap like that pencil. It looks like he's back to square one. _And_ he has a useless plant to deal with.

Two weeks later, Ryuusei still hasn't thought of anything. The conflict of being around Gentaro stirring both joy and pain in him seems to calm, and Ryuusei thinks he can live with just being friends. That is, of course, until Gentaro happens to doze off in class one day and Yuuki messes his hair up as a joke. Seeing Gentaro slowly wake up with his hair down stabs Ryuusei in the heart, and his conflicted feelings are renewed.

If Gentaro would just reject him, Ryuusei is sure he'd be able to find peace with it. Until that happens, though, he knows this knife is only going to drive deeper.

He thinks he'll raise that plant after all, seeing as he has no other ideas.

* * *

After seven months, the coleus looks good enough to hand over. Ryuusei should be eager to hand it off after the unexpectedly long wait, but nerves get the better of him and the plant remains in his house for another month until one day Ryuusei forces himself to grab the plant and head over to Gentaro's house.

He tends to be out and about all day, so Ryuusei shouldn't be surprised when it's his grandfather who answers the door, home alone. He just stands there, coleus cradled against his chest with a hand beneath its pot, speechless.

"If it's not too much trouble," he starts, shaking himself out of his stupor with a bow, "could I stay until Gentaro gets home? I have to give this to him, is all."

Goro is as gracious as ever, happily inviting Ryuusei inside and offering him a snack to help weather the wait. He tells a few little stories of Gentaro's adventures as a young child, and Ryuusei listens intently with embarrassingly soft eyes.

When he finally hears Gentaro's voice, Ryuusei instinctively hides the coleus, as if he isn't ready to gift it yet. Why? It's not like he's grown particularly attached to it. It's just a plant. Its whole purpose was to be a gift...

Yet, with a gentle hand grazing a vibrant leaf, Ryuusei recalls the tender care he raised it with, consistently remembering to care for it as if it were the most important thing in the world to him, as if all the love he can't figure out how to show to Gentaro was redirected to the coleus.

"Oh, Ryuusei's here?!"

Ryuusei steels himself. However it shakes out, it's time to part ways with the coleus.

Goro pretends to have business a few blocks away despite the increasingly late hour. Ryuusei silently thanks him with a curt nod on his way out.

"Woah, that's really cool looking!" Gentaro points out with an excitable smile. "What is it?"

The pot rests delicately on both of Ryuusei's palms. He raises them, offering it to Gentaro.

"It's a coleus plant. I raised it from seeds."

The rest of the words catch in his throat.

"It's awesome! Can I touch it?"

Without actually waiting for an answer, Gentaro carefully brushes a leaf with one finger, as if he's expecting it to zap him. He acts surprised somehow when it doesn't.

"It's for you," he finally says.

"Huh?" Gentaro's smile fades. "But... you raised it yourself!"

He places his hands over Ryuusei's own, impossibly warm, and his smile returns, softer.

"Look at it... it's really thriving. I don't know why you don't want to keep it, but even I can tell you worked really hard on it. I'll take good care of it. I promise!"

Gentaro takes the plant and brings it to his room, setting it on the windowsill.

"... Heh. The bright blue is kind of like your Meteor suit," Gentaro notices. "It's just even more of a guarantee that I'll think of you every time I look at this!"

Look at him. Gentaro isn't even trying, but Ryuusei can feel his heart melting, has to actually put a hand on his chest for fear of it seeping out onto the ground if he doesn't hold it in.

"I like seeing you smile like that," Gentaro says, casual as can be. "It makes me happy."

It's too much. Suddenly overwhelmed and mortified, Ryuusei offers an awkward, stunted thank you and goodbye before fleeing for home.

It's safe to say that some amount of feelings got across, that Gentaro must know how much Ryuusei cares about him by now. He doesn't know why he expects their relationship to suddenly shift, to be different in any way.

It isn't. The next time they see each other, Gentaro greets Ryuusei as normal, and Ryuusei has no choice but to reciprocate. Every time they're together now, Ryuusei ends up staring openly at Gentaro, lost in thought as he contemplates where the hell he's meant to go from here.

... Maybe plain words really are the only solution.

It's another few weeks before Ryuusei's patience meets his pride, both plummetting off the charts. He puts on a fake normal tone of voice to ask Gentaro to meet him at the nearby park that night, and then he spends the rest of the day with his jaw clenched unbearably tight with nerves.

When they meet at the park, it takes a couple of minutes of prompting on Gentaro's part before Ryuusei can finally force the words out.

"Gentaro," he starts-- stops, sighs, starts again, never turning to face him directly-- "how's the coleus..?"

Why is _that_ all he can manage to say?!

"Oh, it's great! I'm not used to having something so beautiful in the house, heheh. It's like I've got a piece of you at home with me at all times."

Does he even know what he's saying? Gentaro always throws words around like they're nothing, but he somehow always manages to land direct hits on the heart with them. Ryuusei isn't even the only one affected.

"I had it for eight months," he tells him.

"Wow... yeah, you said you raised it from seeds! I guess plants take a while to grow."

Ryuusei can't figure out how to convey what he means by that, how significant he intends for it to be. It was eight months of longing for Gentaro, carefully redirecting that energy to raise the coleus just for him. He wished that, for just one moment, they could sync up and share a mind somehow, that Gentaro could just suddenly understand everything.

"And, actually... I was thinking that instead of you just giving it to me, we could make a trade," Gentaro says.

Ryuusei finally turns around, confused.

"What are you talking about? I didn't give it to you just to get something in return. I gave it to you because..."

God, he still can't say it. What is he so afraid of?

"I know, I just... like you a lot, Ryuusei. You're a treasured friend to me. I'd do anything to make you smile. When we're close, I feel really warm, like... like you being nearby is... uh..." he trails off, struggling just as badly as Ryuusei to put his feelings into words. It sounds enough like a confession for Ryuusei to be satisfied.

"Forget it, it's fine," he says, trying to sound nonchalant but feeling the words soften between the smile he can't get off his face. He never imagined they simply had the exact same problem.

"Oh! See!" Gentaro shouts, pointing excitedly at Ryuusei. "That's what I like to see! A genuine smile!"

He laughs now, compulsive. Gentaro laughs along with him, his smile bright and full of joy. It's a force to be reckoned with, one Ryuusei lost the ability to look away from a long time ago.


End file.
